TAMAN, a peninsula, or rather a deltoid island, is formed by the main branch of the Kuban, which empties itself into the Black Sea, and • small branch of the same river, which flows into the Sea of Azof north of the old fortress of Temruk. The western or large part of the island stretches between the Sea of Azof on the north and the Black Sea on the south, and is bounded on the west by the Strait of Yeniktile, the ancient Bosporus Cimmerius, and the Bay of Taman. The length of the island is 57 miles, and its greatest breadth 22 miles, but the real surface is far from corresponding to these dimen sines, the middle of the island being occupied by the large Temruk skoi Liman, or Lake of Temruk, and the whole of the remaining part being notched by creeks and bays in such a manner as to present rather the skeleton of an island than a real island. The south western part of Taman, the ancient peninsula of Corocondama, pre sents a solid mass traversed by several ranges of hills from 150 to ISO feet high : they run from west to cast, and near the village of Sennaya-Balka form a bifurcation. One branch runs between the Kubanskoi Liman, or the lake formed by the Kuban before it reacbea the sea, and the Lake of Temruk, and terminates in a slip of land which divides this lake into two unequal parts. The other branch, the direction of which is north-east, forms the isthmus between the Lake of Temruk on the east, and the Bay of Taman on the west, and terminates before it reaches the isthmus between the Lake of Temruk and the Sea of Azof. The north-western part of Taman, or the penin sula between the Sea of Azof and the Bay of Taman, is no less elevated above the sea, but although it is a continuation of the mainland, it is separated from the eastern hills by a flat sandy isthmus, which seems to have been covered by the sea at a period not very remote from our own times. All these hills are mere masses of sand and pebbles cemented with clay. The higher part of them is barren, but the slopes, and the low grounds between them and the sea or the lakes, are covered with soil and fit for agriculture. They also make rich pasture-grounds. The isthmus between the Teinrukskoi Liman and the Bay of Taman, and principally that between the Lake of Temruk and the Kubaoskoi Liman, are dotted with the neat-farmhouses of the Co yaks; and on the meadows numerous flocks of cattle are fed. The
eastern part of Taman is formed by two flat aud nrrrow isthmuses, and a somewhat broader tract of lowland between the two branches of the Kuban. The whole of this country is marshy, partly covered with pastures and partly with a rank vegetation of rushes and reeds. In the rainy season ell the low country is overflowed by the waters of the Kuban, and the higher part of Taman is separated from the continent by an immense lake which extends from one sea to the other. The whole of the eastern part of the islaud of Taman is a mere recent production of the immense quantities of clay and mud which the Sea of Azof and the Kuban have deposited before the mouth of this river. Tho western and elevated part however in its whole geognostical structure belongs to the opposite continent of the Crimea, from which it has apparently been separated by the current of the Cimmerian Bosporus. In this latter part is the Sewernaya Kossit, a long but very fist and narrow slip of land which stretches from the north-west extremity of the northern peninsula in a south-west direc tion to the middle of the mouth of the Bay of Taman. A cluster of small Islands extends from Point Yunaya north-west till they reach the centre of the strait. Numerous small craters are situated ou the ridge of the hill. arotand the Bay of Taman, as well as along the Lake of Touruk. They present all the external appearances of volcanoes ; though the matter which they throw out is not lava, but a thick mud of • deep black colour, which they discharge at irregular periods.
The Greek. knew this remarkable island under the name of Eion, and founded several ctIonies In it. The most considerable of them were—Phanageria, a famous commercial town, which contained a beiutiful temple of Aphrodite; Kepos, or Kepi, a colony of the Mile elang ; Ilermonama, founded by the Ionians ; and Achilleion: some ruins end marbles are the only traces that remain of their ancient splendour. There are now only two towns-7'infliarakdn, the Pha hegoria of the Greeks; and the present town of Phanogoria, which was built by the Russians on the shore of the Bay of Taman, 3 miles east from TniLtarakin, on account of its harbour being deeper than that of the latter town.